Ranik
Little is known about the Ranik. The race, though militant, is very elusive. All recorded battles until recently have been small scale skirmishes where the Ranik fled, if the battle did not turn decisively in their favor early. Until recently, it was thought that this was because Ranik have a comparatively small population. Very little biological or technical data was recovered from the skirmishes: any ship that was taken out of action exploded violently. Readings showed, that upon a set level of system disability from battle damage, Ranik ships self destruct. A few carcasses, in varying stages of decay and all with some form of lethal injury, were recovered from #$%^$%. There are only three known Ranik that have been captured alive. And this came at a large cost in human life. The specimens recovered from Admiral Lanyon’s Gambit have not yet been declassified, but we have learned much from the recovered cadavers. Form what we have gathered, it would appear that Ranik evolved from a creature very similar to our Limulus polyphemus (horse shoe crab). They have similar body segmentation: prosoma, opithosoma, and telson though the limb designation is different on the Prosoma. Where a horse shoe crab has six pars of limbs; one chelicera, one pedipalps, three ambulatory legs, and one pusher leg; Ranik have only three pairs of limbs at first glance. This has been shown un-true. The Ranik have the same number, but they have specialized in a way the Arthropoda of earth never did. the gnathobase and moth moved from the interiar of the prosoma to the anterior, and the chelicera and pedipalps specilized to form a “jaw.” Making the Cheilcerata sub-phylum of the horse shoe crab slightly ironic. Of note for further encounters, this jaw can unhinge at the tarsial hinge (chin). This allows for the Ranik to “bite” things that could not fit into their mouth. many on #$%^ suffered such wounds, and traces of Tetrodotoxin (TTX)were found in their wounds and Nervous system. No poison glands are present in the Ranik, but the inside of their mouth has an organ that serves as a culture for a Saprotrophic mycoplasma that produces TTX, so it is present in Ranik spittal. The fact that the bacteria is a mycoplasm is very important. Ranik blood shows very slimier components to Limulus: it it blue due to high concentrations of copper (Hemocyanin) and has high concentrations of amebocytes. The amebocytes within the Ranik are, again, more specialized. Two main amebocyts exist. The first, the reactant amebocyt, takes the place of platelets in a process similar to our own hemostasis and sentinel cells as part of an innate immune response. The second, the ambulatory amebocyt, removes any endotoxin encased within the reactant amebocyt and turns it over to the adaptive immune response cells or transports it to Telseon Edotoxin Gland. I can not yet tell at what ratio this occurs at, but there were relatively high stores of Endotoxin it all recovered specimen. It should be noted that the dried exudate formed by the reactant amebocyt looks nothing like human scabs though. Interestingly, the Ranik’s amebocyts can achieve hemostasis faster than human platelets, but it does not look like they wold function at all in a fully sterile environment. As stated, the Ranik also haveo9 a more advanced Adaptive Immune System similar to that of mammals. Category:Factions Category:Races